WEBVTT - Behind The Daily Wire, Part 1 0:00:01.720 --> 0:00:02.880 Cool Zone Media. 0:00:05.480 --> 0:00:09.520 Ah, welcome back to it could happen here a podcast 0:00:09.720 --> 0:00:15.040 about things falling apart. And whenever you have things falling apart, 0:00:15.480 --> 0:00:19.840 you have the Daily Wire. I don't know, Garrison, what 0:00:19.880 --> 0:00:21.680 are we talking about today? 0:00:21.920 --> 0:00:26.720 Yeah, the Daily Wire has been our our trusted companions 0:00:28.880 --> 0:00:31.960 among the rise of the alt right and this kind 0:00:31.960 --> 0:00:35.159 of just impending sense of bad that has been, you know, 0:00:35.320 --> 0:00:39.440 increasing the past five, ten years, twenty years, thirty years, 0:00:39.479 --> 0:00:43.400 you know. So Mia in the last episode talked about 0:00:44.360 --> 0:00:47.159 some of the neoliberal conditions that kind of led to 0:00:47.800 --> 0:00:52.760 this dip in church attendance, and it's resulted in the 0:00:52.880 --> 0:00:56.520 Christian right kind of changing formations in a few interesting ways. 0:00:57.080 --> 0:01:00.360 And we're going to talk about that here, but now 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:03.880 no more specifically about how the Daily Wire has been 0:01:03.880 --> 0:01:09.840 able to profit off of this shift. So as third spaces, 0:01:09.880 --> 0:01:14.240 including churches die off, online spaces have been gun to 0:01:14.520 --> 0:01:17.880 fill the gaps, from Facebook groups to content creators to 0:01:17.959 --> 0:01:23.240 conservative streaming services. The organizational hub of the far right 0:01:23.400 --> 0:01:28.000 has been picked up by opportunistic bloggers and aspiring movie moguls. 0:01:28.760 --> 0:01:33.160 Which brings us to twenty thirteen, a perfect year. Nothing 0:01:33.200 --> 0:01:37.200 went wrong, just a normal, normal time. So In twenty thirteen, 0:01:37.440 --> 0:01:42.320 we had failed screenwriter Ben Shapiro and failed movie producer 0:01:42.400 --> 0:01:46.680 Jeremy Boring. They started working together on a project called 0:01:46.959 --> 0:01:51.320 Truth Revolt. Now, I assume most of us are somewhat 0:01:51.360 --> 0:01:55.800 familiar with Ben Shapiro. He was an editor at Breitbart 0:01:56.400 --> 0:02:00.520 This He started as a young conservative blogger who gained 0:02:00.600 --> 0:02:04.280 prominence in the twentyds and the twenty teens. So I'm 0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:06.880 not gonna waste too much time going into the background 0:02:06.920 --> 0:02:11.400 of Ben because I'm I'm guessing we all basically know 0:02:11.400 --> 0:02:15.360 who Benhapiro is. But I'm also guessing that almost no 0:02:15.440 --> 0:02:19.120 one listening to this probably knows who Jeremy Boring is, 0:02:19.720 --> 0:02:23.200 hence the name, So I'm gonna be focusing a lot 0:02:23.480 --> 0:02:27.320 on Jeremy. I find Jeremy to be a kind of 0:02:27.360 --> 0:02:33.160 fascinating person. I almost weirdly enjoy watching his stuff just 0:02:33.240 --> 0:02:37.040 because I find it to be extremely fascinating. His demeanor, 0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:42.119 his way of going about creating a conservative media empire, 0:02:42.440 --> 0:02:46.320 I find to be really intriguing. I've watched Jeremy Boring 0:02:46.400 --> 0:02:49.720 stuff just as like a voyeurist observer for years now, 0:02:49.960 --> 0:02:53.080 and he's actually starting to become more of a prominent 0:02:53.080 --> 0:02:57.080 face among the right wing media ecosystem, or at least 0:02:57.120 --> 0:02:59.480 he's been putting his face out there for a while. 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:01.960 Most of the time he's just been behind the scenes. 0:03:02.520 --> 0:03:06.240 So Jeremy Boring is just A is A is A 0:03:06.400 --> 0:03:09.320 is a good Christian boy from a small town in Texas. 0:03:09.960 --> 0:03:13.280 He got involved in kind of local town. Yeah. I 0:03:13.400 --> 0:03:16.400 I forget the exact town because I didn't I didn't 0:03:16.400 --> 0:03:19.760 write it down in the script, but I believe it's 0:03:19.800 --> 0:03:22.959 somewhere in West Texas if I remember correctly. It's it's 0:03:23.000 --> 0:03:25.480 it's It's been a while since I watched the two 0:03:25.520 --> 0:03:28.440 hour interview with Jeremy Boring where he discussed his upbringing. 0:03:28.600 --> 0:03:31.240 God, I wonder if it's Lufkin. I'm pulling it up. 0:03:31.320 --> 0:03:35.360 I'm pulling it up Slayton. Okay, Okay, Well still a 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:36.360 dog shit Texas. 0:03:36.640 --> 0:03:39.160 Yeah. See, that's why I didn't mention it, because it's like, who. 0:03:39.120 --> 0:03:42.120 Can's in Lubbock County, Mike love it. Yeah. 0:03:42.520 --> 0:03:45.160 He was kind of involved in some local community theater 0:03:45.280 --> 0:03:48.600 productions as a kid, and like a lot of kids, 0:03:48.640 --> 0:03:51.560 he aspired to be an actor, so as a young 0:03:51.600 --> 0:03:56.000 adult he moved to La He very soon gave up 0:03:56.000 --> 0:03:59.080 acting I think he had one small bit role as 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:02.200 like a crying soldier, but besides that, he just couldn't 0:04:02.200 --> 0:04:05.960 get any work, so instead he decided to become a 0:04:05.960 --> 0:04:11.040 struggling screenwriter. A classic classic move were moving from a 0:04:11.040 --> 0:04:16.719 failed actor. Yes, yes, yes, exactly. In the early two thousands, 0:04:16.720 --> 0:04:19.800 he got invited to a Hollywood Bible study group with 0:04:19.839 --> 0:04:23.320 a whole bunch of like young C list celebrities, and 0:04:23.520 --> 0:04:26.960 over time he evolved into a sort of pastoral role 0:04:27.040 --> 0:04:29.120 within the group. And then in two thousand and seven 0:04:29.279 --> 0:04:32.760 he was able to write and produce his first movie, Spiral, 0:04:32.960 --> 0:04:38.679 starring Zachary Levi, who now played Shazam in DC's movies 0:04:39.040 --> 0:04:41.400 and really nothing else because he seems to be a 0:04:41.440 --> 0:04:43.919 deeply unlikable person who has not really been hired in 0:04:43.960 --> 0:04:49.000 many other things. But Zachary Levi was also in this 0:04:49.200 --> 0:04:52.159 like a Christian Bible study group. They were both friends, 0:04:52.440 --> 0:04:55.000 him and Jeremy Boring. So they made this movie Spiral. 0:04:55.360 --> 0:05:00.599 It grossed just over three thousand dollars, So not the 0:05:00.640 --> 0:05:03.520 smash hit that you know you would you you would 0:05:03.520 --> 0:05:05.440 hopeful for your first movie. 0:05:06.080 --> 0:05:07.960 That is, uh yeah, that's not great. 0:05:08.440 --> 0:05:12.320 It's not it's it's not it's not perfect. Now. Jeremy 0:05:12.360 --> 0:05:15.640 Boring claims that his religious and political beliefs made it 0:05:15.680 --> 0:05:18.279 so that he wasn't able to progress very far in 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:22.600 the Hollywood system. But he was invited to a secret 0:05:22.720 --> 0:05:27.080 meeting of conservatives in Hollywood called the Friends of ABE 0:05:27.560 --> 0:05:29.720 that Robert, you should you should look up the Friends 0:05:29.720 --> 0:05:31.400 of Abe logo because it's really good. 0:05:31.520 --> 0:05:32.360 Oh my god. 0:05:33.720 --> 0:05:36.800 I think people like like, uh, like John Voight and 0:05:36.880 --> 0:05:38.359 just you know those sort of. 0:05:38.360 --> 0:05:40.440 Like, yeah, it sounds like I think John Voight would 0:05:40.480 --> 0:05:41.440 be a member of Yes. 0:05:41.400 --> 0:05:43.479 Yes, I'm pretty sure John voightt was a member of 0:05:43.520 --> 0:05:44.000 this group. 0:05:44.160 --> 0:05:46.400 God, they're and they're treating it. They're treating it. There 0:05:46.440 --> 0:05:48.400 was like a Friends of something or other group that 0:05:48.520 --> 0:05:52.920 was like an underground group providing reproductive healthcare service back 0:05:52.960 --> 0:05:56.800 before abortion, back for Roe v. Wade, which is clearly 0:05:56.800 --> 0:06:01.400 what they're Oh god is the who made this logo? 0:06:01.640 --> 0:06:06.120 This is like bad clip art. Oh my god, it's 0:06:06.200 --> 0:06:06.719 quite good. 0:06:07.240 --> 0:06:10.159 So he was he was invited to this secret meeting, 0:06:10.800 --> 0:06:13.719 the Friends of ABE, and this is where he met 0:06:14.000 --> 0:06:17.840 another friend of the pod, Andrew Breitbart. So this is 0:06:17.880 --> 0:06:22.800 this is actually really a really important too, Yes, a 0:06:22.920 --> 0:06:27.679 very important weird subcultural community within Hollywood. So as Jeremy 0:06:27.720 --> 0:06:30.400 was trying to move into just movie producing, he was 0:06:30.400 --> 0:06:33.120 actually asked to take over this Friends of Abe group. 0:06:33.200 --> 0:06:35.440 So he became a very central role and he made 0:06:35.440 --> 0:06:39.240 a lot of connections, connections that will soon become important 0:06:39.400 --> 0:06:42.360 when we discuss The Daily Wire's own adventures in movie 0:06:42.360 --> 0:06:46.120 producing in the in the next episode or so. So 0:06:46.680 --> 0:06:49.479 he took over this group. Eventually he had this other 0:06:49.520 --> 0:06:52.040 smaller Bible study group, so he's kind of moving up 0:06:52.040 --> 0:06:58.040 in the world of conservative secret meetings in Hollywood. So 0:06:58.480 --> 0:07:01.080 because he met Andrew bite Bart at the Friends of Abe, 0:07:01.680 --> 0:07:04.960 Andrew bype Bart obviously knows Ben Shapiro because Shapiro used 0:07:04.960 --> 0:07:06.760 to be the editor at Breitbart News. 0:07:07.240 --> 0:07:09.840 Also, I feel the need to note the Friends of 0:07:09.840 --> 0:07:14.600 Abe was founded by Gary Sinise, who was in such 0:07:14.680 --> 0:07:19.080 beloved movies as well. I think the only beloved movie 0:07:19.080 --> 0:07:21.880 he was in was Forrest Gump where he played Lieutenant Dan. 0:07:22.600 --> 0:07:23.600 Oh he did Bobe. 0:07:23.720 --> 0:07:27.800 Yeah, this is Lieutenant Dan founded the group, which is 0:07:27.800 --> 0:07:30.720 actually like Lieutenant Dan would be in the Friends of Abe, 0:07:31.360 --> 0:07:35.280 so that kind of fits. He also had apparently a 0:07:35.320 --> 0:07:38.400 bit roll our some role in Apollo thirteen I forget who. 0:07:38.840 --> 0:07:42.000 So there you go, Gary Sinise. Great. 0:07:42.960 --> 0:07:46.600 So around this time is when Ben Shapiro and Jeremy 0:07:46.600 --> 0:07:50.640 Borning first met, just before like twenty ten. I think 0:07:50.880 --> 0:07:53.280 the two met via Andrew bite Bart, whom Ben was 0:07:53.280 --> 0:07:57.000 working for at the time at Breitbart News. Now. Jeremy 0:07:57.040 --> 0:07:59.200 and Ben hit it off, and they decided that they 0:07:59.200 --> 0:08:02.000 would want to work together to create media to quote 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:06.600 unquote influence culture. That's a term that Boring uses quite 0:08:06.640 --> 0:08:11.360 a lot, is like influencing culture now. Boring was very 0:08:11.400 --> 0:08:15.160 impressed by Shapiro and sought to propel Shapiro's fame and 0:08:15.240 --> 0:08:18.920 wanted to create a platform and wanted to create a 0:08:18.920 --> 0:08:22.640 platform to increase Ben's ability to impact politics on a 0:08:22.720 --> 0:08:25.760 larger scale. He really thought he saw something in Ben that, 0:08:25.960 --> 0:08:29.480 if utilized, could make Ben into a pretty major celebrity. 0:08:30.560 --> 0:08:34.000 Boring was friendly with board members of the David Horowitz 0:08:34.080 --> 0:08:38.320 Freedom Center, an extremely racist, anti Muslim right wing think 0:08:38.360 --> 0:08:43.160 tank I believe based in law. Boring thought that Ben 0:08:43.240 --> 0:08:45.560 and David had a lot in common. They were both 0:08:45.679 --> 0:08:49.480 very like politically feisty Jewish conservatives in the LA scene, 0:08:49.840 --> 0:08:52.600 and Boring wanted to prepare Ben to sort of carry 0:08:52.640 --> 0:08:55.120 the torch of the Freedom Center using all of the 0:08:55.160 --> 0:08:57.880 resources that David Horowitz have built up over a long 0:08:57.920 --> 0:09:01.120 period of time. So for a year and a half, 0:09:01.280 --> 0:09:04.439 Boring met with board members behind the scenes to create 0:09:04.520 --> 0:09:07.480 some sort of buy in and cast Ben Shapiro as 0:09:07.520 --> 0:09:10.440 the future for the Freedom Center, planning seeds of what 0:09:10.520 --> 0:09:14.240 it will be to come. Eventually, David Horwitz chose Ben 0:09:14.320 --> 0:09:17.880 as the heir to the Freedom Center first by giving 0:09:17.920 --> 0:09:21.720 Shapiro and Boring an opportunity to test things out by 0:09:21.760 --> 0:09:25.520 starting a company under the Freedom Center called Truth Revolt. 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:30.120 Truth Revolt is something that I didn't I think I 0:09:30.160 --> 0:09:31.640 saw it a little bit when I was like a 0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:35.000 younger teen, but it wasn't It wasn't super popular. Truth 0:09:35.040 --> 0:09:38.400 Revolt saw some initial success as like a conservative quote 0:09:38.440 --> 0:09:44.200 unquote news site aimed at exposing leftist media. Shapiro billed 0:09:44.200 --> 0:09:48.720 Truth Revolt as the quote unquote anti media matters Now. 0:09:48.760 --> 0:09:52.480 Shapiro admits that Truth of Volt ultimately wasn't very sustainable 0:09:52.720 --> 0:09:55.920 because the whole website was designed around trying to generate 0:09:56.040 --> 0:10:00.839 traffic by being linked by Drudge Report, and at the time. 0:10:01.240 --> 0:10:04.240 That's like literally literally like a third of right wing 0:10:04.320 --> 0:10:06.960 media in the early two thousands to mid auts like 0:10:07.000 --> 0:10:09.640 that was Alex Jones's whole strategy for a while too. 0:10:10.160 --> 0:10:13.920 Yeah, the whole point was creating headlines that would be 0:10:13.960 --> 0:10:18.120 linked by this conservative news aggregator. And this isn't a 0:10:18.200 --> 0:10:21.840 very sustainable business model, at least that's what Ben now claims. 0:10:22.280 --> 0:10:25.400 And because truth Revolt was operating under the Freedom Center, 0:10:25.760 --> 0:10:28.760 it was run as a nonprofit and received very limited 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:33.280 funding and little to no advertising budget. But even back then, 0:10:33.440 --> 0:10:36.240 there was a big focus on creating video content to 0:10:36.280 --> 0:10:39.840 fill out the site and grow its own YouTube page. 0:10:40.600 --> 0:10:45.240 I have a wonderful screenshot here of some old truth 0:10:45.280 --> 0:10:48.120 Revolt videos from like nine ten years ago. We have 0:10:48.960 --> 0:10:53.520 brass tax on immigration. Andrew Cleavan I think his name 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:55.800 is Clevan. He's he's one of the main Daily Wire 0:10:55.800 --> 0:10:59.000 guys now, but he was involved way way back then. 0:10:59.240 --> 0:11:03.200 He has a video on Obama conspiracy theories, which I'm 0:11:03.240 --> 0:11:04.400 sure that's great. 0:11:04.960 --> 0:11:07.240 Yeah, I can't wait to dig into that one. 0:11:07.640 --> 0:11:10.160 Ben Shapiro has a lot of videos about why Jews 0:11:10.240 --> 0:11:14.960 vote leftist. We have videos about Hillary Clinton. We have 0:11:15.080 --> 0:11:20.480 the left's magical thinking. This is another Andrew Clvan video 0:11:20.559 --> 0:11:24.080 called fifty Shades of Barack Obama. So again all like 0:11:24.800 --> 0:11:29.199 very very like twenty twelve type stuff here, like all 0:11:29.400 --> 0:11:32.599 all very like early early twenty teen. 0:11:33.160 --> 0:11:35.160 They were iterating, they were cooking. 0:11:35.440 --> 0:11:39.480 They were cooking, and like cooking, sometimes your first attempt 0:11:39.520 --> 0:11:42.960 doesn't really work out. Truth of Bolt started declining in 0:11:43.040 --> 0:11:47.360 around early twenty fifteen, but Jeremy Boring was working on 0:11:47.400 --> 0:11:51.360 a business plan with a more marketing driven approach. Instead 0:11:51.400 --> 0:11:55.280 of relying on like nonprofit annual donors, Boring wanted to 0:11:55.400 --> 0:11:57.600 use a more of a for profit model where they 0:11:57.679 --> 0:12:01.120 use ad revenue and the larger web traffic generated through 0:12:01.160 --> 0:12:04.400 marketing on social media, especially on Facebook, to pay for 0:12:04.520 --> 0:12:08.800 this entire media operation. Now, the old guard of this 0:12:08.880 --> 0:12:12.840 conservative think tank did not really like this plan. The 0:12:12.880 --> 0:12:16.040 Freedom Center actually fired Jeremy Boring when he produced this 0:12:16.160 --> 0:12:19.640 plan to revamp Truth Revolt, and soon after Ben Shapiro 0:12:19.679 --> 0:12:23.600 stepped down. This was in April of twenty fifteen. Jeremy 0:12:23.640 --> 0:12:27.200 and board Jeremy and Ben attempted to buy out the site, 0:12:27.440 --> 0:12:30.560 but that didn't pan out, and eventually Truth Revolt just 0:12:30.679 --> 0:12:35.000 withered away. Do you know what else slowly withers away 0:12:35.160 --> 0:12:35.720 over time? 0:12:38.280 --> 0:12:41.160 You without the products and services that support this podcast. 0:12:41.360 --> 0:12:54.920 That's right, all right, we are back. Thank the maker 0:12:55.000 --> 0:12:57.360 for all of those wonderful products and services that let 0:12:57.400 --> 0:13:02.000 me spend about ten hours day watching Daily Wire videos 0:13:02.360 --> 0:13:05.440 so I could write like four thousand words. 0:13:05.760 --> 0:13:10.320 Truly, this was Sophie's grand dream when she began this. 0:13:11.720 --> 0:13:15.400 Just have a wall of computers constantly playing daily Wire 0:13:15.440 --> 0:13:16.760 plus exclusive content. 0:13:17.640 --> 0:13:20.160 That was the pitch we came to corporate with, what 0:13:20.280 --> 0:13:23.240 if we exposed a man to all of the Daily 0:13:23.320 --> 0:13:25.240 Wire one could possibly consume? 0:13:25.720 --> 0:13:31.000 Hell oh, by all right, So Jeremy Boring, failed movie producer, 0:13:31.040 --> 0:13:34.480 failed screenwriter, has been fired from Truth Revolt. Ben Shapiro, 0:13:34.840 --> 0:13:38.440 his colleague in arms, steps down in solidarity. We love 0:13:38.480 --> 0:13:43.160 to see workers unite. So Shapiro and Boring still liked 0:13:43.200 --> 0:13:46.120 their plan to use ad revenue in social media advertising 0:13:46.160 --> 0:13:50.079 to make a for profit media company. So in twenty 0:13:50.080 --> 0:13:54.280 fifteen they looked for other investors to fund a new website. 0:13:54.760 --> 0:13:57.680 And it just so happened that around this time, two 0:13:57.720 --> 0:14:01.360 Texas billionaires known as the Wilks Brothers. We're looking to 0:14:01.440 --> 0:14:06.040 use their fracking fortune to quote unquote influence culture. There's 0:14:06.040 --> 0:14:09.280 that term again. Through a mutual friend, Boring was able 0:14:09.280 --> 0:14:12.400 to secure millions of dollars in seed money from the Wilkes, 0:14:12.640 --> 0:14:16.520 who also later went on to fund prager You. With 0:14:16.640 --> 0:14:19.720 an influx of cash on hand, Ben and Jeremy started 0:14:19.920 --> 0:14:23.920 The Daily Wire initially just as a conservative news site, 0:14:24.240 --> 0:14:28.840 but with ambitions to become an entire conservative entertainment production 0:14:29.040 --> 0:14:33.520 and distribution house. Instead of relying on donors or links 0:14:33.560 --> 0:14:37.240 from news aggregators, their new approach was focused on creating 0:14:37.480 --> 0:14:42.680 and cultivating a long term audience. They first prioritized quote 0:14:42.720 --> 0:14:46.680 unquote investing in making Ben and other up and coming 0:14:46.720 --> 0:14:52.000 conservative figureheads more famous, in particular, using an intentional social 0:14:52.000 --> 0:14:55.760 media strategy to propel people from out of the conservative 0:14:55.800 --> 0:15:00.600 bubble into the popular zeitgeist. Specifically, Jerry Bor worked to 0:15:00.680 --> 0:15:04.760 increase the personal brand awareness on sites other than Twitter, 0:15:05.000 --> 0:15:07.400 where generally most of these writers spend most of their 0:15:07.440 --> 0:15:11.560 social media hours. The point was to not just do 0:15:11.640 --> 0:15:13.680 it on Twitter, instead do it on the other social 0:15:13.760 --> 0:15:16.880 media sites where actual, like regular people spend more of 0:15:16.920 --> 0:15:19.840 their time because it's mostly just other writers on Twitter 0:15:19.960 --> 0:15:24.280 versus the actual audience that the Daily Wire wanted to attract, 0:15:24.440 --> 0:15:27.800 or mostly spending their time on places like Facebook or Instagram. 0:15:28.400 --> 0:15:31.720 So fourteen months in the Daily Wire was already cash 0:15:31.760 --> 0:15:36.120 flow positive, and we see this approach of specifically trying 0:15:36.120 --> 0:15:39.960 to like create celebrity. It really paid off. If you 0:15:40.000 --> 0:15:44.440 look at how how like the cultural figure of Ben 0:15:44.480 --> 0:15:48.080 Shapiro specifically kind of emerged in the mid two thousands, 0:15:48.120 --> 0:15:51.360 Like he became such like a meme, such like a 0:15:51.400 --> 0:15:56.040 recognizable character through very simple marketing on like YouTube, on Facebook. 0:15:56.280 --> 0:15:59.160 It was. It was wildly successful. You cannot open up 0:15:59.200 --> 0:16:03.360 YouTube with out seeing a Ben Shapiro destroys college student 0:16:03.440 --> 0:16:06.880 on campus video, like every single every single time. Now, 0:16:06.960 --> 0:16:10.160 on top of making a news site, they also decided 0:16:10.200 --> 0:16:14.880 to move into podcasting, a very controversial medium. I'm gonna 0:16:14.880 --> 0:16:17.680 I'm gonna read one quote from Ben here. Quote. One 0:16:17.720 --> 0:16:19.920 area that we had no idea was going to be 0:16:19.960 --> 0:16:23.280 the center of revenue was the actual podcast. When I 0:16:23.280 --> 0:16:25.680 look back at that business plan, what we had allocated 0:16:25.720 --> 0:16:28.000 for the amount of revenue from the podcast was minimal 0:16:28.120 --> 0:16:31.760 compared to how successful the podcast became. And that cannot 0:16:31.800 --> 0:16:35.080 be understated. The Daily Wire makes a shitload of money 0:16:35.120 --> 0:16:35.840 on their podcast. 0:16:36.160 --> 0:16:39.000 Yeah, we all, we all were surprised by how lucrative 0:16:39.000 --> 0:16:42.120 prop podcasting wound up being like because it was it 0:16:42.160 --> 0:16:45.880 was around for like a decade or so before it 0:16:46.000 --> 0:16:48.520 was it, before people were really making any money off 0:16:48.560 --> 0:16:52.200 of it. It's it kind of snowballed very quickly once 0:16:52.280 --> 0:16:55.040 advertisers realized it was something they could get in on. 0:16:55.160 --> 0:16:57.320 But like it was, there was a long time where 0:16:57.320 --> 0:16:59.760 it was just sort of like a thing weird little 0:16:59.760 --> 0:17:03.160 guy like Joe Rogan did and most people didn't really 0:17:03.160 --> 0:17:04.040 think about them much. 0:17:04.720 --> 0:17:09.400 Yeah, and their social media advertising plan also worked outrageously well, 0:17:10.160 --> 0:17:14.199 especially on Facebook. Routinely, over the past few years, stories 0:17:14.240 --> 0:17:17.280 published by The Daily Wire received more likes, shares, and 0:17:17.320 --> 0:17:21.000 comments on Facebook than any other news publisher by a 0:17:21.160 --> 0:17:25.000 wide margin. Shapiro has more followers in The Washington Post, 0:17:25.240 --> 0:17:30.600 their engagement outpaces the New York Times, The Washington Post, NBC, CNN, 0:17:30.760 --> 0:17:34.920 and Fox News on average by over ten times, and 0:17:34.960 --> 0:17:37.520 they often get more clicks on their articles than all 0:17:37.520 --> 0:17:40.920 of those outlets combined. They have like they figured out 0:17:40.920 --> 0:17:45.439 a really successful method to promoting their news content in 0:17:45.440 --> 0:17:47.280 a way that really no one else has been able 0:17:47.320 --> 0:17:51.679 to replicate. Utilizing provocative rage bait propagandized by a select 0:17:51.720 --> 0:17:55.680 few of online personalities, the Daily Wire has been able 0:17:55.720 --> 0:17:58.320 to expand the brand recognition of not just their own 0:17:58.400 --> 0:18:01.760 site but also the person brand of its own hosts. 0:18:02.640 --> 0:18:05.000 Ben and Jeremy brought over some of the people from 0:18:05.000 --> 0:18:08.439 Truth Revolt, but they were also scouting for new talent 0:18:08.600 --> 0:18:12.679 among the twenty sixteen Conservative spear to invest their newly 0:18:12.720 --> 0:18:17.080 acquired fracking resources into. Another quote from Ben is like 0:18:17.320 --> 0:18:21.360 surround yourself with people who are going to be successful unquote, 0:18:21.920 --> 0:18:25.160 particularly not like going after people who are currently popular, 0:18:25.200 --> 0:18:28.560 but trying to find up and coming content creators who 0:18:28.600 --> 0:18:31.280 they think they can turn into being much more successful 0:18:31.600 --> 0:18:35.679 than what they currently started as. Among the people they 0:18:35.760 --> 0:18:40.080 recruited was the relatively unknown extremist Christian writer and radio 0:18:40.119 --> 0:18:42.600 talk show host Matt Walsh, who we will get to 0:18:42.680 --> 0:18:46.600 in a sec the slightly more famous blogger Candice Owens, 0:18:46.600 --> 0:18:48.600 who was picked up a few years prior by the 0:18:48.600 --> 0:18:51.760 conservative student group Turning Point USA to be their quote 0:18:52.080 --> 0:19:00.399 director of Urban Engagement, which is an awful title what 0:19:00.560 --> 0:19:03.560 they mean by I wonder what they mean by urban engagement. 0:19:04.320 --> 0:19:07.760 And then in twenty twenty, after being a Daily Wire 0:19:07.800 --> 0:19:10.960 correspondent for a few years and helping to launch Ted 0:19:11.000 --> 0:19:15.920 Cruz's own podcast, the Daily Wire hired failed actor Michael Knowles, 0:19:15.960 --> 0:19:19.639 who's basically a discount Matt Walsh to host his own podcast, 0:19:20.119 --> 0:19:23.240 And finally, in twenty twenty two, the Daily Wire recruited 0:19:23.359 --> 0:19:27.199 Jordan Peterson, probably their biggest get to date after he 0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:33.200 quote unquote retired from the University of Toronto. The original 0:19:33.200 --> 0:19:35.480 funding pitch to the Wilkes Brothers, who are looking to 0:19:35.560 --> 0:19:39.640 influence culture, explicitly positioned the Daily Wire not just as 0:19:39.720 --> 0:19:43.600 a news site, but as a prospective alternative to the 0:19:43.720 --> 0:19:50.200 liberal Hollywood monopoly. There's a really interesting quote here from 0:19:50.280 --> 0:19:53.840 Jeremy Boring quote, I think there is a path for 0:19:53.960 --> 0:19:57.199 conservatives to create entertainment, but I think you have to 0:19:57.200 --> 0:20:00.439 go about it in a roundabout way. We need a 0:20:00.520 --> 0:20:03.520 marketing and distribution mechanism that allows us to actually put 0:20:03.520 --> 0:20:07.040 an audience on the target, because Hollywood will never cooperate. 0:20:07.080 --> 0:20:09.400 Even if you manage to make a great film, they'll 0:20:09.440 --> 0:20:13.040 never cooperate. They'll make it very difficult for you. With 0:20:13.160 --> 0:20:15.680 Ben and with what we've been doing at Truth Revolt, 0:20:16.040 --> 0:20:19.359 we can make something that's capable of marketing whatever we 0:20:19.480 --> 0:20:24.760 produced thereafter for this particular audience unquote. So there he's 0:20:24.800 --> 0:20:28.399 emphasizing that no matter the quality of the actual content 0:20:28.480 --> 0:20:32.399 you create. For this sort of conservative media ecosystem, you 0:20:32.480 --> 0:20:34.480 first need to actually build an audience that will be 0:20:34.520 --> 0:20:37.280 able to find it. That's like their first step is 0:20:37.280 --> 0:20:39.840 building up this audience, and then they can focus on 0:20:39.960 --> 0:20:44.080 actually making the content just because of how this distribution 0:20:44.200 --> 0:20:47.920 system works. That at least that was Jeremy's take on that. 0:20:48.800 --> 0:20:51.520 Do you know what else is really important for building 0:20:51.600 --> 0:20:57.080 up a sustainable audience? Products, that's right, trustworthy products and 0:20:57.160 --> 0:21:02.320 services that our audience knows are of of fantastic, fantastic quality. 0:21:02.320 --> 0:21:03.320 It's the it's the only way. 0:21:03.840 --> 0:21:06.760 We are also supported by the Wilkes Brothers, but but 0:21:06.920 --> 0:21:12.000 directly through selling hydraulic fracturing technology. So rack your backyard 0:21:12.240 --> 0:21:14.520 and join the frackvolution. 0:21:25.320 --> 0:21:29.879 We're fracking back here, all right. That was just a wonderful, 0:21:29.960 --> 0:21:33.520 a wonderful frack break. My back feels is so much, 0:21:33.760 --> 0:21:37.040 so much, so much more loose after that, I cracked like. 0:21:37.080 --> 0:21:41.520 The house across from me exploded when uh fracturing fluid 0:21:42.119 --> 0:21:45.440 released natural gas that was then ignited by an oven. 0:21:46.800 --> 0:21:50.080 Speaking of speaking of fracking, I think we're both actually, 0:21:50.560 --> 0:21:52.280 even though we're on different sides of the country, we're 0:21:52.280 --> 0:21:54.680 both in like a ridiculous cold freeze right now. 0:21:55.000 --> 0:21:57.359 It's it's it's it's pretty cold. 0:21:57.400 --> 0:22:00.240 Yes, it is twenty two degrees right now. 0:22:00.560 --> 0:22:02.760 Yeah, it's like sixteen or something here. 0:22:02.920 --> 0:22:03.440 Yeah. 0:22:03.840 --> 0:22:06.679 Yeah, And you're in Atlanta, so you are the last 0:22:06.720 --> 0:22:08.520 person alive in the entire city. 0:22:08.760 --> 0:22:12.680 Yeah, yes, but no, I'm sure for Racking has done 0:22:12.720 --> 0:22:19.399 nothing to contribute to this anyway. So let's turn our 0:22:19.440 --> 0:22:23.520 dials now to twenty twenty one once again. Normal year. 0:22:23.720 --> 0:22:28.320 Nothing bad happened, just a fun time overall. In twenty 0:22:28.359 --> 0:22:33.480 twenty one, the Daily Wire relocated from liberal Hollywood, California, 0:22:33.960 --> 0:22:38.480 to Nashville, Tennessee, with hopes of creating their own conservative 0:22:38.600 --> 0:22:43.359 entertainment empire in the music city. After over half a 0:22:43.400 --> 0:22:46.159 decade of building up an audience, the Daily Wire started 0:22:46.160 --> 0:22:50.520 to shift towards creating in house entertainment media like movies 0:22:50.560 --> 0:22:54.320 and TV, as well as producing their own neatly packaged 0:22:54.400 --> 0:22:57.880 documentaries to serve as a cultural catalyst in a way 0:22:57.880 --> 0:23:00.919 that a daily podcast show like The Shapiro Show just 0:23:01.040 --> 0:23:04.840 can't write like we put out a daily podcast, and 0:23:05.200 --> 0:23:06.960 because it's a daily show, it can only have a 0:23:06.960 --> 0:23:09.320 certain level of impact for all the things we cover 0:23:09.880 --> 0:23:13.879 in a way that you know, a highly produced documentary 0:23:14.000 --> 0:23:17.359 can have like a little bit more like easily observable 0:23:17.400 --> 0:23:21.160 impact just because of how it's being packaged. So they 0:23:21.200 --> 0:23:23.639 saw this and decided they wanted to start putting a 0:23:23.640 --> 0:23:26.600 lot of resources into their own documentaries as well as 0:23:26.640 --> 0:23:31.160 their podcasts. But it wasn't just documentaries. In twenty twenty one, 0:23:31.200 --> 0:23:36.040 they also distributed their first movie, Run Hide Fight thirty 0:23:36.080 --> 0:23:39.560 eight percent on Rotten Tomatoes. It is a school shooter 0:23:40.000 --> 0:23:46.040 thriller movie that I have not watched. I've watched a 0:23:46.080 --> 0:23:48.640 lot of the Daily Wires a bitual content. I am 0:23:48.960 --> 0:23:51.520 not watching Run Hide Fight. I'm sorry, I'm just not 0:23:51.680 --> 0:23:52.160 doing it. 0:23:52.400 --> 0:23:55.480 Yeah, I don't really want to watch Diehard with school 0:23:55.480 --> 0:23:58.600 shooters and a teenage girl. That seems a bit on 0:23:58.680 --> 0:24:03.760 the nose. No, I simply refused. Four other original Daily 0:24:03.800 --> 0:24:07.160 Wire movies have come out since then, which we'll get 0:24:07.200 --> 0:24:11.159 to some of those in the next episode. Now, before 0:24:11.240 --> 0:24:14.800 twenty twenty, the Daily Wire was making some exclusive content 0:24:14.880 --> 0:24:18.200 behind like a membership paywall for something that they called 0:24:18.400 --> 0:24:22.280 Daily Wire All Access, But across twenty twenty one and 0:24:22.320 --> 0:24:26.240 into twenty twenty two, they rebranded and pivoted hard into 0:24:26.240 --> 0:24:32.680 promoting their own subscription based streaming service, The Daily Wire Plus. Again, 0:24:32.720 --> 0:24:35.600 they are nothing if not original. This was during a 0:24:35.640 --> 0:24:40.959 wave of plus branded streaming services. We have Disney Plus, 0:24:41.000 --> 0:24:43.920